Biz executives see no reason to panic

Panera Bread Co., which owns or franchises about 1,500 bakeries and cafes, believes its reasonably priced menu will also hold its appeal, even if the economy gets worse.

“I certainly don’t want to respond to the market — that’s the worst mistake you could make,” Panera co-founder Ron Shaich said in an interview. Now the company’s executive chairman, Shaich thinks he learned a valuable lesson during the Great Recession while he was still Panera’s CEO, a job he gave up last year.

“If our competitors are overly reactive to short-term pressure, that creates opportunity for us … The trick is not to react to everything.”

Companies that had already been wobbling will be on an even shakier ground unless the market stabilizes.

That list includes most major newspaper publishers, which have been stuck in the throes of a five-year slump while struggling to make the transition from print to the Internet, and Web pioneers Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc., which hired new CEOs in 2009 to engineer turnarounds that still haven’t happened.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong remained undaunted Tuesday, even after his company reported a second-quarter revenue drop that triggered a nearly 26 percent plunge in its stock price. That left the shares worth about half as much as they were in late 2009, when AOL spun off from Time Warner Inc. In an effort to boost its stock price, AOL intends to spend as much as $250 million buying back its shares during the next year.

Said Armstrong: “I think right now is one of the best opportunities if you have a clear strategy and a clear plan.”